Darius iii - history - knowledge - catalog of articles - rose of the world. The accession of Darius Kodoman Brief description of Darius 3 commander

The Persian power was simply unlucky that Darius III found himself at the head of state at the decisive moment. If there had been no war, they would have survived this Darius III. By the way, Darius III, when he came to power thanks to Bagoi, the first thing he did was kill Bagoi. Well, thank God, at least this is where the coups ended.

Darius III, firstly, was unable to properly organize a rebuff to Alexander the Great. By the way, Alexander initially had absolutely minimal ideas: Alexander had to liberate the western coast of Asia Minor. If successful, he, apparently, intended to reach the Gales River (this is almost half of Asia Minor). But then, as success followed success, he went further. Naturally, he went as long as he could go. In principle, he would have reached China, but the soldiers did not want to go further.

Darius III was unable to organize resistance, and most importantly, in two decisive battles (the battle of Issus in 333, the battle of Gaugamela in 331 near Babylon), he personally led the army. The army was many times superior to the army of Alexander the Great. The Persian army was not bad, it was good, disciplined, they had war elephants, they had sickle chariots, they had everything great. It was important to manage.

And precisely because at the decisive moment of the battle, when Alexander struck the Persian army with his right flank, when even the centers had not yet come into contact, Darius twice, as soon as he saw a cloud of dust approaching his headquarters, abandoned the army and fled. Under Issa - abandoning his wife, his daughters, etc., his treasury. This decided everything: as soon as the Persian army lost control, that’s it, the Macedonians hit the Persians in the back. The main losses in battles occur not when they fight head-on, but when one side begins to flee. The Persians mostly trampled each other. There were huge masses of people there. The Macedonians pursued them for many hours, and the defeat was, of course, complete.

So in this regard, you see, sometimes the fate of an entire large, huge state is in the hands of a mediocre individual. I repeat, if there had been a calm time, the country would have survived, but in turbulent times (in the era of aggression, in the era of reforms), the country may crumble, as happened with the Persian power.

During his flight, Darius III was killed by his own comrades so that he would not fall to Alexander (Alexander persistently pursued him). The death of Darius took place somewhere either in Northern Iran or in Southern Turkmenistan, in general, already there, beyond the Caspian gates.

But what is important here is that immediately after the death of Darius III, the official version of what happened was disseminated. These bad comrades slaughtered Darius, but Darius was still alive when Alexander’s detachment rode up and saw the dying Darius, and Darius (the dying one) bequeathed his kingdom to Alexander. It was a brilliant idea.

In principle, in the East and everywhere else in general, one can rule by the right of conquest. This is fine. But Alexander found the perfect form of his power: he rules as a real heir. He is not the conqueror of Persia, he is the real heir to the power of the Persian kings. He will then catch, he will catch the murderers (it will take a lot of effort to catch them), he will catch them and give them to Darius’ relatives. And they will tear them to pieces, these murderers. He took revenge, he fought with an honest, valiant king, he honestly, valiantly defeated him, he honestly, valiantly inherited the power of this Darius. That is, there were no problems with the authorities. So everything was fine with this legitimate one.

The king became Darius Codomanus, whose grandfather was the brother of Artaxerxes Mnemon, and whose mother, Sisigambida, was the daughter of Mnemon. The people rejoiced at his accession, because he was famous for his meekness, beauty and courage. In the war with the Cadusians, when their leader, a man of enormous stature, challenged his enemies to a duel, Darius, one of all the Persians, dared to accept the challenge and killed the giant. As a reward for this, Okh made him satrap of Armenia, and in all of Persia there was no man who enjoyed such fame as him. Bagoi helped him gain the throne in hopes of governing the state on his behalf. But seeing that Darius did not obey him, he wanted to poison the king. Darius, forewarned of this, forced the villain to drink the cup of poison prepared for the king. – Free from the vices that desecrated the lives of previous kings, gifted with many excellent qualities, Darius began to rule the kingdom mercifully and fairly, as far as was possible given the disorder of state life. Many good Greek warriors entered the service of the Persian king out of hatred of Macedonian rule over their homeland. But the time of destruction of the Persian kingdom was quickly approaching. Darius fell victim to the misrule of his predecessors. He was not able to save the kingdom from the storm that was preparing in the west; he did not have the military talents and political vigilance necessary for this; the Persian troops did not have the same courage and discipline. It had long been clear that an attack by the Macedonians was to be expected. Philip clearly showed his intention to lead the army to Asia by establishing in his kingdom, next to the previous Greek account of silver coins, a Persian account of gold. But the Persians did not take any defensive measures, and were not ready for it when Parmenion and Attalus crossed with the advance detachment of the Macedonian army to Asia. The Persians did not take advantage of the unrest in Macedonia after the death of Philip. The enterprising Memnon, who after the death of his brother Mentor (about 336) became the commander of troops in Asia Minor, advised moving the war to Europe; the Persians did not listen to him, did not even take measures to prevent the landing of the enemy, limited themselves to minor defensive actions against Parmenion, who took command of the troops in Asia Minor after the murder of Attalus, and believed that all danger was averted, because an inexperienced youth became king in Macedonia, and Memnon pushed aside Parmenion to the shore of Aeolis.

Demosthenes promised to persuade the Athenians to an alliance with the Persians if Darius gave them cash benefits. At first the Persians rejected this proposal; only when Alexander defeated the Thracians and Illyrians did they send money to the Greeks for the war; we saw that this support accelerated the Greek preparations for war (page 175). Demosthenes' opponents said that he kept for himself 70 talents out of 300 sent by Darius to Athens, but they could not confirm this accusation with anything.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Hello. This is the “Everything is so” program. Live on “Echo of Moscow” by Natalia Ivanovna Basovskaya, author of the program. Hello, Natalia Ivanovna.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Hello.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Today we will talk about a man who ended up in the history books, one of the two Persian kings, Cyrus the Great, and this Darius III. If it were not for Alexander the Great, he would not have ended up in this story, but would have been a completely ordinary and prosperous king, considering that of the 14 kings of the Achaemenid dynasty, seven did not die by natural causes, in this sense he would have been a quite prosperous king. But before we talk about this, I would like to play, as we usually do, 9 books from the ZhZL “Young Guard” series. Another conqueror of the universe is Genghis Khan. Here is the biography of Genghis Khan, published in Moscow by the Young Guard, which we will now play. If you remember our pager number - +7-985-970-45-45. The question is very simple.

In 1973, the last Shah of Iran gave the order to resume the search for treasures hidden by Darius III when he fled from Alexander the Great. American professionals did this. Nothing has been found so far. So the question is next. What was the name of the last Iranian Shah, the same one who in 1973 ordered the search for the treasures of Darius III. If you remember - +7-985-970-45-45. Don't forget to subscribe. Your answer and name.

Our hero today is Darius III. You know, when I was at school, in the fifth grade, we very often, and in the sixth, we played out among ourselves the battles of those centuries, those and later, and the Hundred Years' War. Some were English, some were French, respectively, Carthaginian warriors and Romans. And we always split in half. But when it came to Alexander the Great, no one wanted to be Persians. The Persians lost everything. Nobody wanted to be Darius. Not a single game worked out! Natalia Ivanovna Basovskaya.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Well, Darius is indeed a very unique figure in history. I would say that he is very little personified in real historical knowledge. I’m not talking about ancient sources, because all of them, most of them, were written much later than the lives of Darius and Alexander, several centuries later. And they are all completely subjective. Ancient authors write about Alexander. And Darius is only a detail of this description and the image that they create, in many ways also an idealized image of Alexander.

He is more of a figure-sign. So I thought about the signs. A sign of the end of the Achaemenid world power, the last ruler from this vibrant dynasty. A sign of weakness, suddenly revealed to contemporaries, the pampered East in front of the younger European civilization, embodied by Macedonia, which had just swallowed the Greek world, the Hellenic world. A sign that highlights the greatness of Alexander in the ancient tradition. Of course, the opposite of their natures, characters and destinies, which are so emphasized by all ancient writings. In this case, I will say essays; they, of course, complete some of them. But this contrast is shaded due to the absence of the brightest qualities that Alexander had, due to their absence in Darius, whom Alexander defeated.

A. VENEDIKTOV: We just don’t know this. And in my opinion, this is the most striking or the very first example that history is written by the winners.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Of course. In this case, yes. Because the Achaemenids left without a serious historiographical tradition that would have preserved them personally. And the last sign, the sign of fate, human destiny. Still, I will look for a person in him. As usual, we will try to see something human behind all the layers of centuries. A sign of fate, marked by a logical chain of atrocities from which his historical fate begins, and they lead to an absolutely tragic ending. This is a slightly moralizing image.

A. VENEDIKTOV: We will try to reveal these victors, look at the essence of this king, at his life, at this king, and at the reason and motivation for his actions, and at the tragic death, of course.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Let's start with when he lived. The dates of his life are known - this is the 4th century BC, since he is a contemporary of Alexander. Birth 381, accession 336, only at the age of 45 he became king. And death - 330. After this, Alexander would not live very long until his also tragic death in Babylon. So who is he? Origin. A representative of a side branch of the Achaemenid dynasty, which has ruled for quite a long time. The Achaemenid dynasty was founded by some ancestor, this is the semi-legendary Achaemen, this is the leader of a group of Persian tribes.

A. VENEDIKTOV: The leader of the shepherds.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Yes. Then Cyrus II, his descendant, he already founded the great Achaemenid empire. And this was the 6th century, mid-6th century BC. And here it is the second half of the 4th. Already quite a big story.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Two hundred and fifty years of dynasty.

N. BASOVSKAYA: The Achaemenids created a powerful state formation that stretched, let’s imagine a world map, in the east - the Indus River Valley to the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean in the west. It included Egypt, part of Libya, part of the Balkan Peninsula, the northern part of Thrace and Macedonia, the Scythians, some lands of Great Scythia, with which the Achaemenids fought with difficulty, and Arabia. That is, it is truly a gigantic world power.

A. VENEDIKTOV: This is the Near, Middle East, plus the South Caucasus.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Yes. And as a core - modern Iraq. Who are the Persians? The ancient ancestors of those who would later be called the inhabitants of Iran. From Persia, the ancient Greek rendering of the ancient Persian word "Parsa". True, modern Iran adopted a different name, it comes from the abbreviation “Country of the Aryans”, they then adopted a different version of their Aryan white-skinned origin. They entered the historical arena at the turn of the 2nd-1st millennium BC, a group of Persian tribes. Gradually, they began to populate the province first. The modern province of Iran is Fars. And then they captured ancient Ilam, one of the brightest states of antiquity, on whose territory lived tribes related to the Darvidian ones, i.e. the indigenous population of Ancient India, dark-skinned people.

Then the arrival of the white-skinned Aryans. They will have a long, complex, confusing history. But the episode with the Achaemenids is quite long, it is very noticeable.

A. VENEDIKTOV: The empire was created by the Achaemenids Cyrus the Great and lost by Darius III, our hero.

N. BASOVSKAYA: And from them came a long history of the birth of other empires on its ruins. But Alexander played the main role. That is, this meeting, a significant episode in world history, is another meeting of East and West that have taken place throughout world history. It’s as if some giant pulsar lives, East and West come closer, collide, influence each other in some way, and then diverge again.

A. VENEDIKTOV: But we can say that with the exception of the Greco-Persian wars, this is the first meeting, the first clash. But in general, the great ancient Egyptian power was brought down to a large extent by certain peoples of the sea, and these were also the ancestors of the Europeans. That is, you won’t find the end here. You'll get lost.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Well, God bless them.

N. BASOVSKAYA: So, its origin. Side branch. He is the great-grandson of one of the Achaemenids, Darius II, born 25 years after the death of his great-grandfather. Father's name is Arsama, mother's name is Sisigambis, religion is Zoroastrianism, if we filled out the questionnaire. [Zoroastrianism (Aves. Mazda Yasna, lit. “veneration of the Wise”, Vahvi Daena, “Good Faith”) is a religion that developed on the basis of the revelation of the prophet Spitama Zarathushtra (Greek form of the name - Zoroaster), received by him from God - Ahura Mazda

A. VENEDIKTOV: Well, a huge imperial family, when the family is perceived not only as a direct line of the Achaemenids.

N. BASOVSKAYA: It is not in a straight line, which makes it noticeable. Firstly, there is a certain legend that he was seen as a warrior, by the way, we will remember later, because then, as the Greeks write, he was completely incapable of fighting. The Greeks only write about his inability. He was noticed as a warrior when, in a duel, in individual combat, he defeated a certain hero from a hostile tribe. What would be a traditional fight scene before a fight.

A. VENEDIKTOV: In the presence of the king, in the presence.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Such a warrior is noticed. His name was Kodoman then. Historians are very serious specialists; they discuss it in fundamental monographs dedicated to the Persian state. Is Kodoman a name or a nickname? And then he took the royal name. But from the realm of non-legends, to the moment when he comes to power, in a completely usurper way, as it should be, although a distant relative, in a criminal traditional way.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Traditionally criminal.

N. BASOVSKAYA: He made a career. Perhaps, being seen according to legend as a warrior...

A. VENEDIKTOV: Why do you say “according to legend”? After all, in fact, people who don’t really sympathize with him are writing about this. There was a fight, some hero called, everyone was afraid, just Chelubey. He came out, walking in front of King Artaxerxes, young, by the way, very young, he was 20 years old. And he won.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Maybe he won.

A. VENEDIKTOV: And the army shouted to him “Hurray!”

N. BASOVSKAYA: All such stories, as a rule, are later made up. When a person becomes a king, they create a brilliant past for him. That's why I say this with such caution. Anyone who came to power, especially if he came in a bad, suspicious, tragic way, must make up such a story for himself. But the obvious fact about his career is that by the time he came to power, he was the satrap of Armenia.

A. VENEDIKTOV: We need to explain.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Satrapies are the names of regions within the Achaemenid state, introduced as a result of the reforms of one of the greatest Achaemenids, Darius I, 6th century. Darius I began to rule in 522. He carried out a whole series of reforms. And it was from the time of Darius I, and not even Cyrus II the Great, who was the founder of the dynasty, that the empire became a relatively coherent organization. And one of the most important results is the introduction of territorial administrative divisions. He divided the empire into satrapies. Armenia is no longer Armenia, but a region, a district, whatever.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Subject of the federation.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Yes. And he headed one of the subjects. This is a big position. Satraps are people who are directly admitted to the king.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Satraps had both military, administrative and judicial power. These were full-fledged governors, appointed personally by the king from people whom the king personally knew. Still, it is confirmed that he was quite close to Artaxerxes.

N. BASOVSKAYA: He made a major career. And it must be said that the behavior of these satraps in the spirit of the ancient Eastern empire was such that in today’s Russian language the word “satrap” has a pejorative connotation. This is the one who serves the king, serves earnestly, trampling on any moral, human norms, if it pleases his ruler. And this word “satrap”, which for antiquity was just the name of a position...

A. VENEDIKTOV: Governor.

N. BASOVSKAYA: ...found. And you never know what modern terms will acquire.

A. VENEDIKTOV: That is, he is the satrap of Armenia. Armenia at that moment was a very important element of the empire. This is the northern part of the empire, bordering the Scythians.

N. BASOVSKAYA: It’s obvious that this area is always a very important element. The fact is that the Persian power is advancing into Europe through Armenia. And all these eastern, not Far Eastern, but central-eastern ancient states, they tend to spread to Europe, just as modern Turkey, having a small piece in Europe, strives to belong to the European community. And these trends turn out to be very stable.

So how did he come to power? Here, too, all these are oral traditions, later recorded by the Greeks and Romans, transmitted to us, writes the Greek Plutarch, but already in Roman times.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Some letters have survived.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Something was preserved. And the ancient Eastern stories were that he came to power through a certain rather traditionally repulsive court figure, a eunuch named Bagoi. This eunuch, an Egyptian by origin, through the court physician poisoned Darius' predecessor, Arses, who had only been in power for two years.

A. VENEDIKTOV: It must be said that in this case Baga was the prime minister in our understanding. He was not the keeper of the harem.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Traditionally a disgusting political figure.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Disgustingly political. Byzantium will show this later. He was prime minister under Artaxerxes III, under whom the rise was in progress, then he allegedly poisoned his benefactor, imprisoned his youngest son, and now poisoned him.

N. BASOVSKAYA: It has become a habit. It must be said that the eunuchs of this ancient time, I think, in real life they were least involved in harems. This is simply the traditional way of coming to closeness to the person of the Sultan, the Tsar, whatever it is called. Because intimacy through a harem is a manifestation of personal contact, and personal contact turns into political contact.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Yes, it transforms into political contact.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Normal for the ancient world.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Note that he is Egyptian, not Persian.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Egyptian.

A. VENEDIKTOV: It doesn’t matter where you’re from, it’s important that you’re a citizen.

N. BASOVSKAYA: And it’s better to rely on an Egyptian who has fewer personal connections here. So, it comes through poisoning. As the informers report, they can say a lot in two or three phrases, which he believed, this is such a seasoned courtier with vast experience that with his experience he will really not be a Kodoman, but a warrior.

A. VENEDIKTOV: He is a provincial, he is a governor in some kind of Armenia, he served for many years.

N. BASOVSKAYA: I will manage everything. But it can be assumed that Bagoi had some grounds; the further fate of Darius III shows that in his individual character there were apparently grounds that pushed Bagoi to this concept. He was actually tossing around, changing his position quite quickly, changing his mind, and impatient. And so Bagoi, a seasoned courtier, thought that he could cope with him. But I was wrong. For Kodoman is yesterday, and now Darius III quickly figured out how to do the right thing, broadcastingly declare Bagoya a murderer. And murderers must be punished.

A. VENEDIKTOV: I want to say that let’s imagine for a second. So, a 45-year-old provincial, a distant relative of the royal family, who has already chosen all the resources to make a career, where after the satrap? Well, commander in chief. All.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Satraps commanded the troops.

A. VENEDIKTOV: He becomes the head of a huge empire, consisting of many satrapies. There are already threats of invasion, because even under Bagoa, Philip II of Macedon begins to send reconnaissance flights to Asia Minor, where the uprising of Greek cities is taking place. And he arrives at the court. He’s such a provincial, our beloved Vespasian, a manly guy with no connection to the aristocracy. [Titus Flavius ​​Vespasian (the elder) (lat. Titus Flavius ​​Vespasianus, November 17, 9 - June 24, 79), who went down in history under the name Vespasian - Roman emperor from December 20, 69 (proclaimed by the troops on July 1), founder of the Flavian dynasty, one one of the most active and successful princeps of the 1st century. Vespasian probably received the cognomen because of his favorite pastime - raising bees.]

N. BASOVSKAYA: But he very quickly fell in love with sophisticated luxury. I want to emphasize that Darius III attacked the delights of royal life...

A. VENEDIKTOV: How beautifully you said it.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Even though I restored it bit by bit. He attacked greedily, as it happens with those you just talked about. He is from the provinces, from such a large career, albeit somewhere far away. Caucasus, capital of the great Achaemenid power. These are Persepolis, Babylon, Susa, Ecbatana. These are the centers of their civilization. Caucasus, many of them don’t know where it is. Somewhere out there, far to the west. This is how Plutarch writes about the situation in Darius’s tent during the war. After an unsuccessful battle, which will be discussed. What matters is what's in the tent. “When Alexander, who captured this tent, saw all kinds of vessels, jugs, basins, bottles for rubbing, all skillfully made of pure gold, when he heard the amazing smell of fragrant herbs and other incense, when finally he entered the tent, amazing in its size, height, decoration of boxes and tables, Tsar Alexander looked at his friends and said: “This, apparently, is what it means to reign.”

So, Darius III began to reign with all his might. His wife is the beautiful Statira, who, according to all versions of ancient authors, is very good. And Plutarch so simply, with the childish naivety characteristic of the ancients, writes: “The most beautiful of all queens.” Of all the people in the world.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Let us remember that Alexander the Great marries their daughter, who is also a beauty.

Y. NECHIPORENKO: They have children, beautiful daughters. The eldest son will die in the battle with Alexander at Granik, the younger son will be captured after the battle at Isa. He has a family, and this is the enjoyment of luxury. The spoils that Alexander will receive during this war, naive people in the 70s of the twentieth century were looking for wealth, this is a delusion, they were poorly prepared. When you read what tons of gold, silver, and jewelry were taken out, how many thousands of mules and camels were needed to take it all out, how many talents—those are tons. This, I repeat, is tons of gold and silver. Then I think that they were looking for Darius’ treasure in vain.

A. VENEDIKTOV: I will quote Diodorus with your permission. Diodorus reports that Alexander the Great loaded all the treasures they captured in Persia with more than 3 thousand camels and 20 thousand mules, i.e. for 23 thousand pack animals. Seven hundred and fifty thousand talents of silver and gold. If we remember that one talent weighs 26 kg.

N. BASOVSKAYA: From 22 to 26 kg. This is unthinkable! They searched in vain. They wasted their time and money in vain in the 20th century.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Crassus will also search, thinking that Darius hid something, and Caesar will search, Nero will search.

N. BASOVSKAYA: If Alexander the Great was so shocked by the military tent, and in general, when he burst in there, Darius was not there, he fled, he told his friends, Alexander: “Let's go, let's wash away the dust and sweat of battle in the tent of the fleeing king " He wanted to take a shower, a bath. And when he saw all this, that he was carrying tens and hundreds of gold objects on a campaign, he imagined what it meant to reign. And then these thousands of mules and camels, this enrichment is incredible. When Alexander began his great eastern campaign, he had 70 talents in his treasury. And there are tens of thousands here.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Natalia Ivanovna Basovskaya, we are talking to you about Tsar Darius III. We come to the point where Darius III begins to reign, and at the same time the Macedonian invasion begins. And the rest of his royal life, six years, would be a war with Alexander the Great, which would end badly for him. But more on that later.

N. BASOVSKAYA: They became kings in one year, and two years later Alexander started the war.

A. VENEDIKTOV: I asked you which was the last Iranian Shah who was looking for gold, who ordered the search for the gold of Darius III. The correct answer is Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. And the book “Genghis Khan, Conqueror of the Universe” of the ZhZL series of the publishing house “Young Guard” is received by Natasha - 155, Boris - 673, Andrey - 592, Arkady Mikhailovich - 628, Vladimir - 492, Vera - 151, Svetlana - 209, Denis - 566, Marina – 686.

Our hero with Natalia Basovskaya is Darius III, the last king, the great king from the Achaemenid dynasty, that’s what they said and addressed: “Great King.” I will quote a line from his letter to Alexander the Great. They corresponded, and the correspondence has been preserved. Darius wrote to him: “You will grow old in the time it takes you to just walk through my domain.” Personal correspondence.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Darius III imagined the scale that he inherited from his ancestors, an unprecedented, huge power. He imagined this much more realistically and better than, say, the Western European population would imagine in the coming Middle Ages, for example, going from France to the East, where Jerusalem is located, and at what distance. This Ancient East traditionally had more thorough geographical knowledge. But now about the qualities and properties of our character Darius III. At the beginning of the war, as in the future, he made many mistakes. That's what. Despite all the bias of ancient authors, it is still clear from the facts. And very serious researchers talk about this. Which mistakes? First of all, they all, and he too, first of all, were afraid of the father of Alexander Philip II. They were very afraid. And not without reason.

Philip II, the conqueror of Greece, a very energetic man, a man of strength, a ruler of strength, a rude Macedonian, a warrior who came from the north. And they, not without reason, thought that he was preparing a war against the East, against Persia, and he must be removed. Most likely, the famous Persian gold had something to do with the murder of Philip II. But they could not imagine that they should be even more afraid of 18-year-old Alexander, his son. Firstly, there was no certainty that he would really be the successor. There was some infighting after the assassination of Philip II. An 18-year-old young man, many objected. But he did.

And in the two years that will pass before the start of his great eastern campaign, he will already show his originality. So what did Darius III do wrong? Believing that the murder of Philip solved the issue in many respects, he was deceived; he ceased to fear so much energetic movements from the West. Moreover, in 335, a year before the start of the great campaign, Alexander recalled his best commander Parmenion from Asia Minor. He recalled him to prepare for the eastern campaign. And Parmenion will play a very important role for most of the campaign. Darius misunderstood that the departure of this Macedonian commander from Asia Minor meant that there would be no campaign to the East.

A. VENEDIKTOV: And the most interesting thing is that the satraps of Asia Minor in this sense reported to the king that it was they who expelled Parmenion, they forced him to leave, everything was in order. Everything is calm in Baghdad!

N. BASOVSKAYA: They lied. A satrap is a satrap so that, while creating the appearance of his endless lackey devotion to his master, he actually lies to him, thereby betraying him. His satraps will lie to Darius more than once during this war. This is why they lied. They wanted to show everyone how wonderfully they dealt with the Macedonians, the Macedonians left. They were very afraid that Darius, fearing a threat from the West, would begin to strengthen the coast of Asia Minor, which meant that the king’s position in their satrapies would become stronger, and they disoriented him.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Moreover, the young king is in his first year of reign.

N. BASOVSKAYA: As a result, Darius not only did not strengthen the coast of Asia Minor, which was necessary to do, but smart Greek mercenaries from the enemies of Alexander, who fled from Greece, told him that this had to be done. But he didn't. Moreover, he smugly and, being in great delusion, sent orders to his satraps that if Alexander, this young Macedonian king, came here, they would certainly take him alive. Take him alive... You yourself will perish in this fight. And deliver him alive to Susa. Here are the measures of his disorientation, which were arranged by the satraps.

In the spring of 334 BC. Alexander the Great began his campaign in Asia. If we compare with the Persian capabilities of the Persian king, with very modest forces, about 30 thousand infantry, 4.5 thousand cavalry, while the Persians in Asia Minor only have 40 thousand people, and Darius will need 100 There are definitely 100 thousand people around.

The Macedonians crossed the Hellespont and the first battle took place in 334, the Battle of the Granicus River. No one expected that, given the absolute numerical superiority of the Persians, such a victory would be won. The victory is hard, very hard. The best part of Darius' army, as it turned out in this battle. Darius himself is not involved here.

A. VENEDIKTOV: He is still in the capital.

N. BASOVSKAYA: His best commander is the Greek Memnon. From those same fugitives who fled for political reasons from the power of the Macedonians in Greece. He generally advised not to accept a battle with Alexander there, not to immediately give battle to this young, hot-blooded, energetic man. Let him cool down, let him get stuck in the desert of Asia Minor, weaken him with all sorts of attacks. Very smart tactic. Of course not, it was not accepted, they did not listen to him. So. At Granicus the Persians are defeated.

A. VENEDIKTOV: And you said that Darius’ son died there.

N. BASOVSKAYA: The satrap of Lydia Ionia, Spithridates, was the son-in-law of Darius, one of Darius’ sons died, Alexander could have died. Cleitus, his foster brother, brother, whom Alexander would later kill personally with his own hand with a spear, Clitus cut off the hand of this Spithridates when he almost killed Alexander, therefore he will once again save his life. Cleitus will save twice. After all, in order to then be pierced by a spear, this person must do a lot of good. So this first meeting. I, as I assume, collecting bit by bit all the ideas about Darius, he still considered it a misunderstanding, a mistake, not the beginning of a great tragedy, a raid, but dangerous.

And he decided to act, to rely on his own, eastern method - to send a killer to Alexander. He found a man, Alexander's enemy from among his internal enemies. Alexander Lynxetian, that’s his nickname, he commanded Alexander’s Thracian cavalry. The chief of the cavalry, a very important figure! The killer was promised a reward - 1 thousand gold talents, plus the throne of Macedonia. He was ready to commit this crime. But a certain Persian spy was captured, that same Parmenius, a commander of the older generation. And, probably under torture, Darius’s plan was revealed.

Then the commander of this Thracian cavalry was captured and taken into custody. Alexander did not want wide publicity of this event, and therefore he was simply taken into custody, and information about him disappeared into oblivion. Alexander did not want to show that he had such a dangerous situation inside, in his army.

A. VENEDIKTOV: I didn’t want to yet.

N. BASOVSKAYA: But Darius probably decided that this was again an accident. He, however, does not have a military leader. After the death of Mnemnon, he does not have a person who would stand out for his merits. Another Greek, Charidemus, expelled from Athens by order of Alexander, advanced. How politics and war are intertwined here is quite natural. He is ready to lead Darius' army of one hundred thousand. A denunciation arrives. He is a former Athenian strategist, this Charidemus. A denunciation comes to Darius - he will betray him.

A. VENEDIKTOV: From their satraps.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Satraps again. He will betray, he will definitely betray! There is no evidence. But Darius, quite in this sense, an eastern ruler, orders Charidemus to be executed just in case. Going to execution, the doomed Charidemus utters, all the authors convey words in which he predicts the obligatory loss of the kingdom. “You will pay for what you did to me with the imminent loss of your kingdom.” Most likely, a legend composed later. But that there were such people among the enemies of Alexander, and the bet was made on them, is quite in the spirit of the ancient Eastern empire and monarchy. It is not necessary to win in a frontal formation. Remove the inconvenient and dangerous Alexander.

And as for clashes, battles, Darius’s limitations, so internal, deep, it’s not for nothing that our moderns, in the twentieth century, compared him with some similar hesitant military politicians, right up to Nicholas II in Russia, who made a decision, canceled the decision who, like Alexander, could not quickly rebuild. Darius was convinced that this absolute number, the absolute global size of his state would allow him to recruit such an army that its numbers would sooner or later defeat any Macedonian phalanx.

A. VENEDIKTOV: I would return to that and remind our listeners that Darius is a young king, although he is already 47 years old. Yes, he was supported by the aristocracy and the army, but he didn’t even know who to rely on. This provincial who has sat on the throne, who can he rely on? Who is lying, who is not lying? How to read reports?

N. BASOVSKAYA: But everyone lies. And so he decides to lead the army himself. He probably shouldn't have done that.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Well, if you remember that he is the satrap of Armenia...

N. BASOVSKAYA: He absolutely could not imagine that again, apparently, the army was more than 100 thousand. Numbers alone will decide everything. And Alexander is already here, in this meeting, this is the year 333, such a convenient, round date, the Battle of Isa. This is already in the depths of Asia. Alexander proved that he would win not by numbers, but by military talent, courage, and maneuverability. Alexander's army moved south towards Phenicia to capture Phenicia. Having learned that the countless army of Darius III could chase after him, coming from the East, he turns his army around and goes towards danger. Not from danger, as Darius will do twice, but towards it.

The Macedonian phalanx is moving towards Darius, but what prompted Darius to take such a decisive step - to take the lead himself? He had a dream, in the dream there was a Macedonian phalanx, and these were six rows of warriors with spears of different lengths, the last ones, the ones in the back, had a five-meter spear. Invented by Alexander's predecessor Philip II. And in a dream, the Macedonian phalanx is engulfed in flames, Alexander serves Darius, enters the temple and disappears. Well, the courtiers who were obsequious to him explained it! All! Victory is guaranteed. And so he himself stood at the head of the army. He himself made a stupid decision regarding the maneuver, driving his huge army into a cramped space. Only a huge field would suit him.

He voluntarily led him into a cramped space, and there the massacre began. And here are the Macedonians, who are fewer in number, but who fight more fiercely, because Darius’s is unknown who, these are forcibly driven people, these are representatives of the most different tribes, his power is cracking, it is torn like a patchwork quilt. What do they need Darius! Why are they going to fight? And so far Alexander has organized his army like this: we are the great Hellenes, we are enlightened Greeks, we are going to take revenge for past grievances, for the Greco-Persian wars, we bring culture and God knows what!

At least Alexander's troops have an idea. Darius' army has no idea. He himself is on a war chariot, but there is such a crush and massacre around the chariot! Corpses are falling, he has nowhere to take a step to the side, Alexander personally rushes towards his chariot, while being wounded in the thigh, this slowed him down, but did not kill him. And in the end, Darius shows cowardice, gets off this chariot, it cannot go, there are only corpses under his feet, jumps on his horse, and is carried away from the battlefield of Isa. The first, but not the last time. The second will be the last. This will happen at Gaugamela. What a blast! At the same time, he left his family. In full force: mother, wife, little son and two beautiful adult daughters.

This magnificent five went to Alexander. They are prisoners, they are hostages. This is incredible. But the cowardice shown here is fantastic. And some time passes, a little less than a year, and he writes a letter to Alexander, a letter is delivered.

A. VENEDIKTOV: By the way, I would like to say that after the Battle of Isa there were three messages from Darius with peace proposals. He acts as a peacemaker. He is ready to declare him king, he is ready to divide the empire with him.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Surrender on certain conditions, not completely, but by sharing power. But Alexander answered him, according to one of the Roman authors Arian, simply amazing! He writes to Darius, Alexander: “You, with the help of Bagoi, killed Arses and seized power unjustly, in defiance of Persian laws. You are unfair to the Persians." Alexander, of course, is a politician. So he is concerned about the interests of the Persians. “You sent inappropriate letters to the Hellenes (Greeks), calling them to war with me. You sent money to the Hellenes and your ambassadors bribed my supporters and tried to destroy the peace that I established in Hellas. I defeated the battle, first your general strategists, and now you and your army. And I own this land because the gods gave it to me. I am now the ruler of all Asia. And when you write to me in the future, write as to the king of Asia, and do not address me as an equal.”

That is, there is a grandiose military-political battle between the Western European world in the person of the Macedonian army and this amazing leader Alexander the Great, and the last Archemenides, who does not yet know that he is the last, but very soon he will understand it. Darius offered Alexander to return his family for 10 thousand talents, this again is a huge amount of precious metals.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Two hundred and sixty thousand tons of gold and silver.

N. BASOVSKAYA: And also all the lands beyond the Euphrates. This means Syria, part of Iran, Asia Minor, most of it, Egypt and Arabia. And a daughter as a wife as a sign of friendship and alliance. Well, he can marry his daughter without him talking.

A. VENEDIKTOV: That’s what he wrote.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Yes, that doesn’t matter to me.

A. VENEDIKTOV: I’ll get married without your consent.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Then his wife, Daria, will die in captivity, and will die from childbirth. And Darius will be very upset, but who, whose child was it? He will be assured that Alexander treated her absolutely chastely. The official version is that he kept them chastely, and did not even reduce the number of servants in excellent conditions. But still, Darius will be killed. This is a big moral blow. When these conditions came, Parmenion, this famous, very experienced commander, said the famous phrase: “If I were Alexander, I would accept these conditions.” And Alexander’s no less famous answer: “I swear by Zeus, I would do the same if I were Parmenion. But I am Alexander."

That is, in essence, in this competition between two worlds with the external impossibility of victory for Alexander’s 40,000, 50,000 army, 2.5-4 thousand of his cavalry over this darkness that Darius is gathering. Before the last decisive battle, before the Battle of Gaugamela, he again collected something innumerable. And ancient authors write about 1 million warriors. But modern historians do not accept this.

A. VENEDIKTOV: It’s impossible to place it in this field.

N. BASOVSKAYA: And there very often it is necessary to take away zeros from ancient authors. In the Middle Ages in Western Europe, in the chronicles, I know that I need to cross out one zero, it will be close to the truth. In reality they say that there could be about 100 thousand. Against Alexander’s 40 thousand. What did Darius' army look like? Indians, Bactrians, Sagdians, residents of Bactria and Sagdiana, Central Asia. There are 200 chariots in the army, which is a lot, 15 elephants. And these Indians, Bactrians, Sagdians, for the first time, perhaps, under Gaugamela, this is already in the heart of modern Iran on the Tigris River, inside modern Iran, not far from the ruins of the capital of Ancient Assyria, Nineveh. In this battle they have some reason, maybe they are motivated for the first time. Knowing about the previous defeats of Darius III and the unimaginable victories of Alexander...

A. VENEDIKTOV: ...they think that he will go further.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Yes. And they are right. He himself may not have decided everything yet. Again, here the special scientific literature looks very interesting, because there are debates whether by this time he, Alexander, decided that he would go further to the east, or not. He will have disputes with his army, it will be a difficult question. But, in any case, in this battle Darius’s army fought, perhaps more energetically than before. And it is no coincidence that this particular battle is reflected on one of the frescoes now present here in our studio. Pompeii is 1st century AD, but the memory of this battle lived on. And this mosaic, not a fresco, I said incorrectly, on one of the Pompeian walls, now located in the National Museum in Naples, amazingly depicts this piece of the battle, when Darius is again on the chariot.

Again, the property of such natures is to repeat their mistakes. After all, he realized then that the inability of the chariot to move against the backdrop of numerous fallen warriors and animals was ruining him. But he's on the chariot again! This is the stability of the East. The king fights like this. Again with his combat bow, which he doesn’t need at all. At this time, Alexander needs brains, not a bow or a sword. He constantly decides where to transfer, whether to help Parmenion, he will save him from complete defeat, his flank. He thinks all the time.

And this king should be with a huge bow, with his regalia. After the battle of Isa, he had already abandoned them, and here, near Gaugamela, he will abandon them again. Darius runs again. He is running, in a hurry. Alexander is pursuing him, he took refuge in the capital of Media Ecbatana, guessing that Alexander will not follow him there, but he needs to move somewhere to the east in order to gather some new forces. And Alexander understands this too. But in general, like in some modern blockbuster, in a detective story, a long-lasting film version can be imagined.

A. VENEDIKTOV: The chase.

N. BASOVSKAYA: A long, hard chase. They stop for the night and see how long ago Darius passed here. Darius runs surrounded by several satraps, in many ways the heroes of our today's program. Among them there is the most disgusting one, and it’s not for nothing that his name is somehow surprising, accidentally sounds disgusting in Russian - his name is Bess.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Bessos, as the Greeks write.

N. BASOVSKAYA: In Russian transcription it is preserved as Bess. There are several satraps there. A part of the Greek mercenaries who always retreated last and betrayed the one they hired last. That is, he has a chance to get further to the east.

A. VENEDIKTOV: He doesn’t have a chance.

N. BASOVSKAYA: And there are letters that show that he thinks so. That the very size of his empire, which he boasted so much about to Alexander, would save him.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Our satraps...

N. BASOVSKAYA: ...there are satraps! He's been deposed! First deposed. Bess, who was distantly related to the Achaemenid family, i.e. Darius III number two, he also had some distant relationship, explains to the entourage, the people who surround the fugitive, that this man, who fled twice in the heat of battle, is not suitable for saving the Persian kingdom, but I am. Darius deposed...

A. VENEDIKTOV: Thrown into a peasant cart, shackled.

N. BASOVSKAYA: No respect, he is already a miserable prisoner. And when it turns out that Alexander is catching up with this whole company...

A. VENEDIKTOV: Twenty thousand steps.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Yes. He was stabbed to death, Darius III, apparently by Bess personally, apparently. Well, it doesn’t matter anymore, you can’t prove it. And then the smart Alexander, who in this sense was also, of course, a great politician, ordered to punish the murderers, which would soon be done over time, and to show royal honors to Darius III, saying that we, the kings, must be treated well. And then a wonderful legend was composed that when dying, Darius asked for water, and asked to convey gratitude to Alexander for the way he treated his family, and shook the hand of the Greek who happened to be nearby so that he would convey the handshake to Alexander.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Alexander will become his son-in-law, and will still marry his daughter. And she will be expecting a child when Alexander died, the heir of Darius and Alexander. But there were several wives. She will be strangled immediately after Alexander's death. Daughter of Darius and wife of Alexander the Great.

N. BASOVSKAYA: Well, the fate of Darius III is the fate of a great empire. And it is as amazing as a drop of water; his personal life reflects the fate of such a grandiose, bright, but very short-lived state entity. Well, the empire of Alexander the Great will live even shorter. And in the place of the heart of Darius’s possession, in the place of the future Iran, there will be a Seleucid state, headed by one of Alexander’s successors, Seleucus, and it will form the core of future, successive empires. Everything is perishable in this world.

A. VENEDIKTOV: Natalia Ivanovna Basovskaya.

Biography

Accession to the throne

Darius III is a representative of the collateral line of the Achaemenid family: his father Arsames was the son of Ostanus, son of Darius II. Before ascending the throne, he served as satrap of Armenia and bore the name Kodoman (Kodomann).

He was placed on the throne by the court nobility at the age of 45 and took the throne name Darius III. Soon Darius eliminated the eunuch Bagoi, who tried to poison him. At the very beginning of his reign, Darius quelled the unrest in Egypt and re-annexed it to his power.

Invasion of Alexander the Great

Alexander left a small garrison of Greek allies to cover the Dardanelles crossings, and he himself headed south with the main army. To weaken Persia, Alexander decided to first capture the bases of the Persian fleet on the Asia Minor coast. He first moved towards Sardis. Commandant Sardis Mitron surrendered the capital of Lydia to him without a fight. After this, all of Lydia and Phrygia went over to Alexander’s side without resistance. The Greek cities of Asia Minor also opened their gates to the conquerors. In Asia Minor, where the oligarchy was supported by the Persian king, Alexander, unlike his father, stood on the side of democracy. By this he attracted wide sections of the population of Greek cities to his side. Only in Miletus and Halicarnassus did Alexander encounter strong resistance.

Memnon, who was appointed governor of Lower Asia and commander of the Persian fleet by Darius, was forced by the onslaught of the Macedonians to leave Miletus and retreat to Halicarnassus to lead the defense of that city. Using siege engines, the Macedonians began to destroy the city wall of Halicarnassus. The besieged made forays and set fire to structures for the assault. When the city became impossible to defend against the numerically superior Macedonians, the defenders set it on fire and took refuge in the fortress. Subsequently, Memnon managed to capture Chios and most of Lesbos. However, the sudden death of Memnon in the spring of 333 BC. e. during the siege of Mytilene on Lesbos, she saved Alexander from this dangerous enemy. After this, by order of Darius, the Persian fleet was recalled from Greek waters, and the initiative finally passed into the hands of Alexander.

Battle of Issus. Loss of Asia Minor

Fall of Babylon, Susa, Pasargadae and Persepolis

Mazeus retreated to Babylon, and Alexander considered it more important to pursue him. The Babylonians, along with their satrap, came out to greet the new king as a liberator. Alexander left Mazeus as governor of Babylonia - the first appointment of a Persian to such a post.

In February 330 BC. e. Alexander captured Susa, where he received 40 thousand talents (about 1200 tons) of silver and gold bullion, as well as more than 9000 gold darics. From Susa, Alexander moved to Persia, the homeland of the Achaemenids and the core of their kingdom. The Persian satrap Ariobarzanes and his army put up vigorous resistance, but the Macedonians managed to bypass him along mountain roads. The Persians had to retreat to avoid being surrounded in Media, where Darius was staying. Alexander then captured both Persian capitals, Pasargadae and Persepolis, without much difficulty. As the invaders approached, part of the population of Persepolis fled, and the rest, by personal order of Alexander, were executed. Alexander gave the entire city, except for the royal palaces, to his soldiers for plunder. In Persepolis, Alexander inherited the untold riches of the royal treasuries. Tradition speaks of an amount of 120 thousand talents (about 3600 tons), not counting dishes made of gold and silver and jewelry. To transport such a quantity of precious metals to Babylon, 10 thousand carts and 300 camels were needed.

At the end of May 330 BC. e. Alexander, being highly intoxicated, went with a burning torch to the palace of Xerxes and set it on fire.

Death of Darius III

Alexander covers Darius' body with a cloak. 18th century engraving.

After the capture of Persida

Alexander and Darius. Only almost two years later, in the spring of 331 BC, Alexander, already declared by the Egyptian priests to be the son of the god Amun, set out from Egypt to the east. A year earlier, when the Macedonian king was in Phenicia, besieging the city of Tire, Darius tried to negotiate peace with him. He asked to return his family, offering 10 thousand talents for it. He also offered the hand of Stateira, one of his daughters, giving her lands from the Hellespont to the Euphrates as a dowry. Finally, he asked Alexander for friendship and alliance.

Darius' proposals were so important that Alexander decided to discuss them with his entourage. During the discussion, Parmenion said that if he were Alexander, he would accept these terms. To this Alexander replied that he, too, would accept them if he were Parmenion. Therefore, Darius was given the following answer: Alexander does not need either money or part of the Persian state instead of the entire kingdom. If he wants to marry Darius's daughter, he will do it of his own free will, because... she is in his power. And from now on, if Darius wants a merciful attitude towards himself, then he must appear to Alexander himself, like a subject to a master.

Having received such a letter, Darius refused further negotiations and began to prepare to continue the war. As for Alexander, his statement, intended not only for Darius, but also for the Greeks and Macedonians, meant that he had determined the goal of his eastern campaign, and this goal was the capture of the rest of the Persian power, from the Euphrates to the Indus.

Crossing the Euphrates. Having passed through Syria, the Macedonian army approached the Euphrates. The crossing was supposed to be defended by Persian troops, but only when they saw the main enemy forces across the river did they clear the bank without a fight. Alexander unhindered crossed the Euphrates and went deeper into the waterless steppes of Mesopotamia, continuing to move east. Darius did not interfere with him: the entire Persian army was waiting for the Macedonians on the plain, ideal for its deployment and subsequent defeat of the enemy. Near this plain was the village of Gaugamela (“camel stable”).

No one suspected that the forgotten ruins not far from the future battlefield were once called Nineveh, the “den of lions,” and it was the capital of the powerful Assyrian Empire, before which the peoples of the entire Middle East trembled.

Crossing the Tigris. In the second half of September, the Macedonian army approached the second great river of Mesopotamia - the Tigris. The prisoners captured earlier showed that Darius was going to prevent the enemy from crossing. However, when the Macedonians got ready to cross, there was no one on the shore: the Persians were preparing for battle, filling up potholes on the plain they had chosen, cutting off hummocks so that nothing would interfere with the rapid attack of the cavalry and war chariots, on which they had special hopes.

Darius' military preparations. By that time, war chariots, once formidable weapons on the battlefield, were falling out of use. But the Persians improved them for this battle, equipping the drawbars and wheel hubs with sharpened sickle-shaped points sticking out to the sides. Having burst into the ranks of the enemy infantry, the sickle chariots were supposed to cause terrible devastation there. Darius also improved the weapons of his infantry; his warriors now had longer spears and swords instead of their traditional javelins and akinaces. It seems that he was trying to create some kind of Greek or Macedonian phalanx out of his foot soldiers. The problem was that any number of weapons could be made according to the Greek or Macedonian model, but the Persians were not able to “make” the required number of Greeks and Macedonians capable of skillfully wielding these weapons.

Eclipse. When Alexander's army was resting after a difficult crossing of the Tigris, a lunar eclipse occurred, which greatly frightened the superstitious Macedonians. To calm the army, Alexander made sacrifices to the sun, moon and earth, and the soothsayer Aristander predicted victory for the Macedonians.

Intelligence service. Having left the camp, Alexander moved along the Tigris to the south. On the fourth day, scouts reported to him that enemy horsemen were visible on the plain ahead. The king and part of the cavalry rushed after them. The Persians hastily fled, but the Macedonians managed to capture several prisoners and learned from them that Darius and his entire army were nearby. When these data were confirmed by his intelligence, Alexander stopped the army and gave it a four-day rest.

Darius, meanwhile, did not move. Finally, the Macedonians again moved towards the enemy.

Rest before the fight. When a huge plain occupied by the Persian army opened before their eyes, they stopped again and set up camp. Since the day was already setting, Alexander decided not to tempt fate and followed the opinion not of the majority of his commanders, who were immediately eager to fight, but of Parmenion, who advised him not to rush and carefully examine the area in order to detect possible traps and ambushes.

Having posted guards, the Macedonian army settled down to rest. Alexander himself stayed awake most of the night, thinking about tomorrow's battle and considering different options for the disposition of his troops. They say that Parmenion came to his tent and advised him to attack the enemy at night, so that his own soldiers would not be horrified by the huge number of enemies. Alexander replied that, firstly, he was not going to steal the victory by attacking in a thieving manner; secondly, the Persians are under arms, ready precisely for a night attack by the enemy.

The Persians are waiting. And indeed, the Persians were so afraid of Alexander’s attack in the dark that Darius kept his army in line all night, not allowing him to rest. The priests and the king himself offered prayers to their deities for victory. The ancient historian astutely notes: “The Persians, by the way, were greatly harmed then by this long standing in full armor, and by the fear, usual in view of the formidable danger, but not the one that arises immediately, suddenly, but the one that takes possession of the soul for a long time and enslaves her".

Alexander's sound sleep. Already in the morning, tired Alexander fell into a deep sleep. When the time came to raise the army and prepare for battle, deep silence reigned in the commander's tent. The Macedonian commanders gathered around her and waited. Time passed, Alexander did not show up. Finally, Parmenion himself ordered that the soldiers have breakfast and decided to go in to the king. Having woken him up with difficulty, the old commander said: “It’s already light, the enemy has moved his formation, and your soldiers are not yet armed and are awaiting orders. Where is your cheerful spirit, aren’t you always waking up the guards?” Alexander replied: “Do you really think that I could fall asleep before I relieved my soul from the worries that haunted me?” And then he ordered a trumpet signal to be given for battle. Alexander explained to the surprised Parmenion that the main thing he feared was that the enemy would not disappear again in the vast expanses of Asia. Now that battle is inevitable, there is nothing to fear.

Number of armies. On the number of enemy troops here, as in other cases, we have conflicting data. It is generally accepted that Alexander's entire army numbered 47 thousand people: about 7 thousand cavalry and 40 thousand infantry. As for the Persians, one author (Arrian) reports clearly fantastic figures: “They say that in Darius’ army there were up to 40 thousand cavalry, up to a million infantry, 200 chariots with scythes and a small number of elephants, which the Indians brought with them...”

The data of another ancient historian (Curtius) about the forces of Darius inspires more confidence: “The total number of the entire army was as follows: 45 thousand horsemen, 200 thousand infantry.” Modern historians also question these figures, believing that the Persians had hardly more than 12 thousand cavalry, because it would simply be impossible to control a large number in battle. In any case, Darius's army, especially the cavalry, as can be seen during the battle, significantly outnumbered Alexander's forces. The Persians placed particular hopes on the actions of the sickle chariots: if they had managed to disrupt the ranks of the phalanx, and the Persian cavalry had overthrown the much smaller Macedonian cavalry, then the fate of the battle would have been decided - the phalanx, surrounded by Persian archers and cavalry, would have died, slowly bleeding to death .

Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC

Disposition of troops. On the morning of October 1, 331 BC. At Gaugamela, a battle began that decided the fate of the Persian state. After the battle, a map of the location of Darius’ army was found in the Persian camp, so we can imagine its formation quite well. In the center, as usual, stood the king himself, surrounded by his guards. In front he was covered by the few (about 2 thousand) Greek mercenaries remaining with him. Both wings of the Persian army, adjacent to the center, consisted of infantry and cavalry units interspersed. The edges were strengthened by the magnificent Bactrian, Parthian and Median cavalry. War chariots were placed in front of the Persian front, mainly on the left flank, where, remembering Granik and Issus, they expected Alexander's attack. Additionally, the Persian center was protected by 15 elephants.

When forming his army into battle formation, Alexander took into account the possibility of bypassing it and striking the enemy on the flank and from the rear. Therefore, he used the mass of his infantry not to lengthen the battle line - this would greatly complicate the movement forward during an attack - but to double its depth, and the orders behind the ranks were given to turn around in the event of an enemy approach from the rear. Detachments of light cavalry and infantry were lined up on the flanks in a ledge and moved after the advancing phalanx line. If necessary, they had to block the enemy's flank attacks or close those gaps in the battle formations that could have formed during the attack. Alexander himself with the cavalry of the hetairas was, as usual, on the right flank, and in front of them there was light infantry in scattered formation - archers and dart throwers, who were supposed to act against the enemy chariots.

The battle begins. The battle began with Darius ordering his left flank to outflank Alexander's right flank, which was advancing to the right, obliquely to the main front line. The Central Asian cavalry of the Persians rushed around the Macedonians. Alexander ordered his mercenary Greek cavalry to launch a flank attack on it, but it turned out that the heavily armed Bactrian and Scythian cavalry easily drove back the Greek horsemen and continued to move. Then reinforcements began to approach the Greeks, a stubborn cavalry battle began, in which more of Alexander’s soldiers fell than those of the enemy - his superiority in weapons and numbers made itself felt. However, the Macedonian attacks continued here, and Darius’s cavalry failed to complete the task assigned to it.

Chariot attack. Then, to support her, the Persian king ordered sickle chariots to be thrown into battle. But this attack, on which the Persians pinned such hopes, turned out to be unsuccessful. While the chariots reached the Macedonian battle line, many charioteers were killed by arrows and darts. The Macedonian heavy infantry, having closed their shields, as Alexander had ordered in advance, began to knock on them with their sarissas, raising a terrible noise. Some of the horses jumped away from the phalanx out of fear. Only a minority of the chariots broke into the ranks of the Macedonians. The wounds they inflicted were terrible: “So sharp was this forged weapon for destruction and with such force did it act that many had their hands and shields cut off together; many had their necks cut, and their heads rolled to the ground, their eyes still continued to look , and the face retained its expression; with a well-aimed blow, some were turned on the side, and they died in cruel suffering."

Alexander

But in most cases, the warriors managed to make way for the chariots, so that they rushed through the ranks to the rear of the Macedonians, where they, already without drivers, were caught by Macedonian grooms. As a result, it turned out that the losses caused by this attack were relatively insignificant.

Breakthrough of the Persian center. Since part of the Persian cavalry was sent to support the flank operation, a gap opened in the Persian battle formations to the left of the center. Alexander immediately took advantage of this and, having formed a wedge of the Hetaira cavalry and part of the infantry, rushed into the breakthrough, aiming a blow at the Persian center, where Darius himself stood on a chariot. This attack was supported from the front by most of the phalanx. The Persian center, which was hit simultaneously by flank and frontal attacks, found itself in a very dangerous position, but held out for some time. Both kings took part in the battle: Alexander, at the head of the heavy cavalry of the Macedonians, cut through to Darius, who, standing on a chariot, threw darts at the approaching enemies. Arrian says: “For a short time the battle was hand-to-hand; when the cavalry, led by Alexander himself, decisively attacked the enemy, pushing him back and hitting him in the face with their spears, when the dense Macedonian phalanx, bristling with sarissas, rushed at the Persians, Darius, who had long been It was already scary, horror seized him, and he was the first to turn and take flight."

Another ancient author adds details: when the kings grappled with each other, Alexander threw a dart at Darius, but, missing, killed his charioteer. Darius's bodyguards screamed loudly, but the Persians, standing at a distance, decided that the king himself had been killed, and fled. The persistent detachment of the Persian guard was soon scattered, and Darius, finding himself without cover, drove his chariot away from the battlefield.

Darius

Robbery is more important than success. However, the Persian right flank was much more successful. They managed to bypass the left wing of the Macedonians, and when the Macedonian center went on the attack to support Alexander's flanking operation, a gap opened in the battle formation. The Central Asian and Indian cavalry of Darius rushed there, which managed to overcome the resistance of those units with which Parmenion tried to close the gap, and go to the rear of the enemy. Thus, the entire Macedonian left flank was caught in a pincer movement, and Parmenion sent messengers to Alexander asking for urgent help.

If the Persians had followed up their success against this flank of the Macedonians, it might have been crushed. But instead, discordant crowds of horsemen rushed to plunder the Macedonian camp. Some of the captives joined them, however, everyone forgot about Darius’s family in the turmoil, carried away by the opportunity to profit. The resistance of the few camp guards was broken, but all this took precious time, and the Macedonians, turning their formation, struck at the barbarians who were busy plundering.

The hottest moment of the battle. Alexander, having received Parmenion’s request for help, stopped the pursuit of Darius that had begun and rushed with the hetaira to the other flank. He had to deal with a dense mass of enemy cavalry returning after the defeat of the Macedonian camp. According to Arrian, “the cavalry battle began, the hottest thing in this whole battle. The barbarians, built in depth in detachments, turned and attacked Alexander’s soldiers, standing face to face with them. They did not take up the darts, did not circle, as usual in equestrian combat: each struck the one who was in front of him, seeing in this the only salvation for himself. ... Neither one nor the other had pity: they were no longer fighting for the sake of victory, but for the sake of their own salvation.” Alexander, who lost about 60 people here, managed to disperse the enemy cavalry; those of them who managed to break through the ranks of the Macedonians fled without looking back.

General flight. While this battle was going on, the Thessalian cavalry finally dealt with the Persian right flank. The enemy's flight became general. Alexander again rushed after Darius, but again did not catch up: he fled to the east, to Media, correctly calculating that his formidable enemy would prefer to first occupy the rich cities of Mesopotamia and the capitals of the Persian kingdom, Susa and Persepolis, along with a huge amount of treasures, which in two for more than a century accumulated in the treasury of the Persian kings.

The meaning of the battle. After the Battle of Gaugamela, the Persian kingdom ceased to exist, any organized resistance to the conquerors was broken for a long time. When Alexander again rushed after Darius, he continued his flight to the east and was soon killed by his entourage. The point, apparently, was that the unlucky king had completely lost heart and was ready to surrender to the mercy of the winner. Some, however, thought differently: a relative of Darius, the satrap of Bactria Bessus and his like-minded people arrested their former ruler and transported him for some time in a closed cart. When the pursuit began to overtake them, they killed Darius and rode away.

Central Asia and India. Continuing his campaign, Alexander invades Central Asia and here for the first time encounters mass popular resistance to the conquerors. Suppressing him, the Macedonian king was forced to spend two whole years in those parts. Only then did he lead his tired and battered army forward to conquer India, believing that thereby the conquest of the entire eastern part of the inhabited world (ecumene) would be completed. But in India, the Macedonians faced new dangers and obstacles: a tropical climate with its suffocating heat and streams of water that fell from the sky, a mass of poisonous snakes, mighty rivers, impenetrable jungles.

Conquests of Alexander the Great

This country was distinguished by its large and warlike population; here the Macedonians for the first time had to face the massive use of such formidable weapons of antiquity as war elephants. Although Alexander emerged victorious in the first military clashes, again brilliantly demonstrating his military genius, there came a time when the army refused to follow him.

Organization of the empire. The great conqueror was forced to turn back and start organizing his huge power, which now included, in addition to Macedonia and Greece, part of North-West India and the entire former Achaemenid Empire. Alexander made Babylon his capital. There he died on June 13, 323, not reaching the age of 33 and not having time to implement grandiose plans for new conquests.

Collapse of the empire. Alexander's empire did not long outlive its creator. Immediately after his death, his commanders began a bitter fight among themselves. During this struggle, the last representatives of the Macedonian royal dynasty were destroyed, and the power itself fell apart into three large and many small states that made up the Hellenistic world. Having survived its heyday and decline, this world of the heirs of Alexander's monarchy, in turn, became the prey of new great powers: its eastern half became part of the Parthian kingdom, and the western half, from the Euphrates to Balkan Greece, was conquered by Rome, where the center of political life of ancient times moved peace.